


Pained heart

by Alliminati



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Amputation, Angst, Background Hance, Bittersweet, Bittersweet Ending, Clones, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith and all those goshdarn clones is the main focus, Kuro being a dick, Lots of Clones, Sheith ain't main focus, not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 13:10:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11921598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alliminati/pseuds/Alliminati
Summary: They came from nowhere. Clones, hostile, deadly and wearing Shiro's face.And they kept comingAnd coming.And coming.But they had to stop at some point right?





	Pained heart

**Author's Note:**

> This whole idea was made my dearest friend Mike and I hope I did the idea justice. But idea credit to him! You can find him at http://timetomike.tumblr.com/
> 
> Honestly, this is more or less a drabble, my writing muse has been awfully down lately so I do apologize for the shortness, if someone would like me to make it a more full fledged story then please do tell me.
> 
> Also, first time in hella long time where I write in a fandom, and first time for Voltron, so I do apologize if some of them are ooc, I am a bit rusty :)
> 
> Unbetaed.

It started a few weeks after they found Shiro floating around in space. They found another shuttle floating around.

At first they wondered if this was another alternate reality thing, but no, the Shiro that stepped out that time had exactly the same memories as the Shiro they already have. In the confusion that occurred with both Shiro claiming they're the real one, the first Shiro had turned on the new, accusing him of being fake and that word was like a trigger. The new Shiro’s eyes had turned yellow, a wicked smirk on his lips as the room then filled with purple light.

The apparent fake - _clone-_ was then on the floor, smoke floating out from the wound on his neck, Keith could clearly remember the deafening silence with only sounds mixing between sobbing and screaming from only one person. Shiro was shaking, screaming, tears down his face as he looked at his own dead body.

Shiro had locked himself in his room for days, refusing entry to anyone, not even Keith could get in. The next week had been filled with tension threatening to break. Keith sat outside Shiro's door the whole time, Hunk bringing him -and in extension, Shiro- food.

It didn't take long before another one appeared, and then another, and then another. It got so far that they had no choice to…dispose of the clones, especially when they turned hostile quickly. The clones started to stealthily infiltrate the ship instead of coming up in shuttles, eventually being hostile from the beginning.

It turned into patrols around the ship. Hallways empty and quiet until filled with screaming and sobbing from each of the paladins.The real Shiro could never sleep, always hearing the pain from his teammates, _his family,_ hands practically glued to his ears as he tried to ignore. _It was the only way after all._

Eventually, it had quieted down, but Shiro wasn't sure what was worse, looking at the cold broken faces of his family that didn't react to the killing anymore or seeing them scream and cry. He found out that somewhere between the screaming and crying and where it had stopped, Keith had taken it upon himself to kill the clones. Keith had refused to tell him why, the rest of the team had refused to tell him as well as he was in the dark as the hallways got more and more sinister.

Shiro was almost constantly in his room by that time, only knowing a clone was killed when Keith would come into his room, silent and smelling of sweat, crawling into his bed and curled up beside him.

 ×××

 

Eventually all the clones turning up was instantly hostile, attacking them instantly. It put a strain on all of them.

×××

They all had different ways to cope. Keith didn't have the time to do just that as he was busy with the overflowing amount of clones, but if he wasn't then he was either training or in Shiro's room, holding onto said person like a lifeline. Keith knew Lance stayed and talked with Blue -even if he didn't fly said lion anymore- sometimes he had heard soft singing from Blue's hangar. Hunk was baking, or doing some engineering on his lion. But he still kept trying to put on a smile for everyone, making sure they all ate at the very least.

Pidge was in the Green lion's hangar, always buried in the laptop, desperately trying to find Matt, and at times, trying to find where the clones come from. Shiro didn't have a way to cope, his dreams were more plagued by horrors than before, with only Keith to help him calm down. He were never directly connected with the clones dying but he was still in pain.

Allura and Coran… Keith wasn't sure how they coped, if they even coped. Allura did seem more closed off and Coran was tense but Keith had no idea about them at all.

It had almost been a month when it all changed.

 

×××

 

Keith was breathing hard, trying to calm himself. No matter how numb he acted towards this all, it still pained him thoroughly each time he struck down a clone, something tugging at his heart, trying to tear it apart in the most slow excruciating way possible. Hand clenched hard on his bayard, he turned, heading a familiar way until he was back at Shiro's room like many times before. Shiro was waiting for him as usual, eyes downcast, trying not to break infront of the younger as the former red paladin was stripping and then crawling onto the bed, fitting against Shiro like a puzzle piece.

In his head, Keith called him Kuro, not Shiro because he knew, had known all this time that _Kuro_ wasn't the real Shiro, he wasn't sure if the others knew or not. But this was the closest Keith could get to the real Shiro and he wasn't letting go, not when he was too tired, not when he didn't know where the real Shiro was. Not when he had already lost him once before.

Kuro wasn't like the other clones either, he didn't turn hostile at the accusation of being fake. Keith wasn't sure what to make of that, maybe Kuro was the real one but had changed so much that he wasn't recognizable but he found that he couldn't care any less about it as he drifted off to sleep, lulled by the gentle hands stroking his slightly shaking back.

 

×××

 

“We have to form voltron again and continue our missions, we cannot just sit here, _waiting_ like this.” Allura said in the dining area, hand smashed on table, daring anyone to protest her final decision as she looked at solemn faces of her paladins. Hunk and Lance were glancing away before they nodded. Pidge furrowed their eyebrows for a few silent moments.

“What about the clones then?” They asked, a silence coming over the room at the mention of said clones. Keith stared at the table angrily, clutching his own arms. Shiro sat by him, glancing away, tensing up as if he was ready to fight.

“We will just have to deal with them the best way we can, find a way to stop them but only as a side mission. We cannot forget our duty to the universe.” Allura sighed and straightened herself, body visibly relaxing as she turned to the red and black paladin. “Keith? Shiro?

“Black chose Keith, I will deal with… the clones.”

The reaction was instant, Keith slammed his hands on the table, glaring down Allura first and then Shiro. “No! I am _not_ letting you deal with them on your own.” Turning back to Allura, he clenched his fists. “ _Sorry_ Princess.” With that, he left, stomping angrily out of there.

The tension was back again, Shiro sighing, rubbing his face before he was standing as well. “I'll go talk to him. “ Shiro leaving also.

Pidge was biting their lip before choosing to break the tense silence. “I'm worried, about Keith. I don't think he is okay…”

“I'd normally say that mullethead seems normal but he's even broodier than usual.” Hunk nudged Lance at the comment as Pidge raised their eyebrow at that.

“Not the best time Lance… “

Lance sighed and sulked a bit in his chair, leaning a bit against Hunk. “Sorry babe.”

Pidge turned away from the exchange and looked at the, now completely tense, Princess. “I'll try and look more into how to stop them.”

A small smile graced the Altean’s lips. “I appreciate it, thank you.”

×××

“Keith? You okay?” Shiro was leaning against the doorway to the observatory, a worried frown on his face. Keith glanced over his shoulder, shrugging a bit. “As okay I can be with killing…well you, over and over again.”

 Shiro let out a sighed, stepping fully into the room to stand beside Keith, hand on his shoulder. “You know, you don't have to do it by yourself-”

“No, I am the only one who can do it, I have known you for so long, I can't let anyone else do it, I just… can't.” Keith spat, shrugging the hand off and turned to him fully, anger radiating from him before he was deflating and just leaned forward against the elder.

“I'm sorry.” Shiro hushed him, fingers stroking through his hair, humming. “Hey, baby, you remember how we used to look at the stars on the roof at your house?” Keith laughed bitterly as he placed his cheek against his shoulder, both of them looking out at the stars. “It was romantic.” The younger answered. “Different stars now though.”

“Still a romantic place, _Kitten._ ” The nickname had him caught off guard and he tensed, slowly getting himself out of the other's embrace, only to stare at a face with yellow eyes and a wicked smirk.

He held his breath for a few moments before he was huffing, taking a cautious step back. “I knew something was wrong with you.”

Kuro laughed, the sound sending a chill down his spine. “I never doubted you kitten.” A sound akin to a purr was heard. “But I can see why _Shiro_ liked you so much.” His arm activated and in the same second, it clashed against Keith's Marmora blade, and having to step back to dodge it, rolling on the floor to quickly get a distance. “Actually, I was the real Shiro. At least for a while, maybe not a perfect one but still the real one.”

Keith narrowed his eyes as the other charged, clashing once again before doing the same move again. _He was being toyed with_. “A sleeper agent then?”

Kuro laughed again. “Bingo Kitten. Oh maybe I'll just keep you for myself.” Same movement again, clash and same evade movement. “Oh, but the look on Shiro's face when he sees your torn corpse is oh so tempting.”Kuro started on the same movement again and maybe Keith should have been more prepared and alert then maybe he could have noticed the change earlier.

He bit through the pain, hand momentarily clutched against his side, breathing harshly before steeling himself. It continued like that for what felt like minutes, small burning scratches piling up on his body while he had barely scratched the clone.

Taunt after taunt and Keith was trying his best not let it rile him up. But then came one wrong move amidst every calculated one and everything stood still.

Keith was shaking, blade embedded deep either close to or in Kuro's heart and in return, Kuro's galra arm was embedded in his upper left. He didn't feel anything, nothing. He was seeing red, but Kuro still had a smirk on his face, like he had actually won. Like he was winning whatever game this was, but there was blood running down from his mouth, clear sign he was dying and that, tore at Keith's heart because now he lost Shiro for the third time, clone or no clone.

“ _I was the last one._ ”

That was the last he heard before everything went dark.

×××

Keith woke up later, stumbling out of the healing pod, caught by someone, he couldn't decipher who. He didn't really remember anything that happened during the time after getting out of the pod. Only small tidbits here and there. His left arm was gone, it couldn't be saved. They had watched the security and knew Kuro was a clone, Kuro now being dead.

Pidge, being the genius they are, had refitted him a new arm, duplicated from _Kuro's_ arm. It was the best they could do. Allura had been talking with him at some point but he was too unfocused. Hunk and Lance both had come with food but he barely remembered eating. When they deemed nothing else was wrong, that the arm worked fine, he could leave.

He didn't leave his room for days.

×××  

It took him two weeks to come out of his room. After Kuro's death, the clones stopped coming. They didn't know why or how but frankly, Keith didn't care, he only knew that he had lost Shiro again.

×××

They were infiltrating a Galra ship, on a mission to get data, when they found him. He was chained to the wall, bloodied and beaten but still visibly alive. Keith had been shaking, breaking down in the middle of the cell and just cried. Seeing Shiro awaken and recognizing him with a small smile, Keith cradled him, face buried in his hair, waiting for the other's to come and help.

But he knew this time, he knew for real.

_This was the real Shiro._

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr @ http://illuminatiofdoom.tumblr.com/  
> An alternate ending will be added eventually.
> 
> If you managed to read this far, please leave a kudos if you liked.


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